Pedestrian Safety
'Dangerous by Design' Paints Bleak Portrait of Pedestrian Safety
A report by Smart Growth America and the National Complete Streets Coalition ranked the danger to pedestrians in metro areas around the country. The report finds the metro areas of the Sun Belt are the least safe to be the least safe places to walk.
Should Police Write More Jaywalking Tickets in Philadelphia?
A reporter in Philadelphia doesn't hold back the innuendo in a recent article about the city's efforts to improve pedestrian safety. The implication: pedestrians won't be safe until the police start writing jaywalking tickets.
Biking Boom Takes to the Sidewalks
The city of Santiago, Chile offers a cautionary tale for cities amidst a biking boom that don’t rethink the mode balance on their streets: there’s nowhere for bikers to go except the sidewalk.
NYPD Writing More Traffic Tickets
February data shows a perceptible increase in the number of moving violations enforced in New York City compared to the year prior. The increase is at least partly because of how few traffic tickets were written in 2013.
Can New Financing Mechanism Deliver Multi-Modal Safety in Low-Income Areas?
A new bill in Congress would create a new $11 million program amidst the $1 billion Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (TIFIA) loan program. But can it deliver more safety improvements to under-served populations?
San Francisco Announces New Pedestrian Safety Program: WalkFirst
With its own “Vision Zero” goals in place to eliminate pedestrian fatalities within a decade, San Francisco has developed the WalkFirst plan to target the most dangerous intersections in the city for safety improvements.
New York Mayor de Blasio Details Vision Zero Traffic Safety Plan
New York Mayor Bill de Blasio gathered Police Commissioner William Bratton and Transportation Commissioner Polly Trottenberg to make the potentially historic policy announcement: the Vision Zero plan, which treats all traffic deaths as preventable.
Bike and Pedestrian Infrastructure Financing Bill Introduced in Congress
Rep. Albert Sires (D-N.J.) introduced the New Opportunities for Bicycle and Pedestrian Infrastructure Financing Act of 2014 (H.R. 3978), modeled on TIFIA, to promote investment in bike and pedestrian facilities to make streets safer for all modes.
Is Lowering the Speed Limit the Best Way to Improve Street Safety?
In the aftermath of recent pedestrian fatalities, a lot of attention has been placed on lowering speed limits across New York City to improve safety. But the city's former traffic commissioner argues that other approaches would be more effective.
To Improve Street Safety, NYPD Cracks Down on Elderly Pedestrians
How far should cops go to ticket jaywalkers, particularly when dealing with non-English speaking senior citizens? An 84-year-old upper-West Side resident was targeted by New York's finest, and ended up arrested, bloodied and hospitalized.
Sneckdowns: Nature's Street Safety Pilot Project
It's hard to imagine how the wintry mess blanketing cities across midwest and northeast could improve street safety. But recent snows provide one benefit being touted by safety advocates: temporary curb extensions or "neckdowns" caused by snow banks.
Is This the Most Useless Crosswalk Ever?
The Transportation Planner posts about an inexplicable crosswalk at a highway interchange located in McLean, VA, a suburb of Washington, DC.
Pedestrian Safety Becomes a National Issue
With people young and old embracing urban lifestyles and cities working to create more walkable environments, pedestrian safety is a growing concern across the U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx has embraced the issue as a priority.
De Blasio Outlines Plan to Eliminate NYC Traffic Deaths
Yesterday, Mayor de Blasio launched “Vision Zero”, a multi-agency effort to eliminate NYC's traffic deaths within a decade. With eleven deaths (seven of them pedestrians) already recorded in the new year, progress can't come soon enough.
Cities Pursue Different Paths to One Goal: Safer Streets
In the face of rising pedestrian and bicyclist fatalities, the District of Columbia's police department began deploying automated photo enforcement technologies while San Francisco took a multi-agency, collaborative planning approach.
With Bipartisan Bills, U.S. Congress Looks to Improve Bike and Pedestrian Safety
Bipartisan groups of legislators introduced identical bills in the U.S. House and Senate last week that would compel the USDOT and states to measure and improve the safety of non-motorized transportation users.
U.S. Traffic Fatalities Increase After Multi-Year Decline
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has released its traffic fatality data for 2012. Though the overall number of deaths remains historically low, the percentage of pedestrian and cyclist fatalities continues to rise.
Loophole Offers Opportunity to Act on Calls for Improving NYC Pedestrian Safety
It won't take the approval of the state legislature to reduce speed limits on many of New York City's residential streets, just a City Council bill that takes advantage of a loophole in existing state law.
Portland Pilots Project to Raise Pedestrian Awareness
With smartphone use eclipsing 60% of mobile subscribers, "distracted walking" is a growing problem in communities across the United States. Portland is testing out several technologies to prevent pedestrians from walking in front of buses.
New Study Ties Distracted Driving to Increase in Pedestrian and Cyclist Deaths
Though vehicular deaths have been declining across the U.S., pedestrian and cyclist deaths have risen. While intuition might say our ubiquitous cell phones are to blame, hard data has been scarce. A new study seems to support this conclusion.
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